Gill named football coach at Liberty University

Liberty University completed a swift search for its eighth head football coach Wednesday, with athletics director Jeff Barber announcing the hiring of former Kansas and Buffalo head coach Turner Gill just eight days after former coach Danny Rocco left Liberty for the University of Richmond.

Kansas fired the 49-year-old Gill at the end of this season after the Jayhawks went 2-10 and ended the year on a 10-game losing streak. He lasted just two years in Lawrence after a five-year run at Buffalo where he brought the Bulls from the depths of mediocrity to bowl eligibility.

Liberty will formally introduce Gill as coach today at 1 p.m. during a press conference on the third floor of Williams Stadium press tower.

“As we conducted this search during the past nine days, [Gill’s] name was recommended to us over and over from coaches and athletics directors from around the country as the right man to lead our football program,” Barber said in a university release. He was unavailable for comment late Wednesday night.

Gill played quarterback at Nebraska from 1980-83 and spent two years with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal franchise before a series of concussions prematurely ended his football career. He dabbled in baseball before pursuing a career as a football coach.

Gill held graduate assistant jobs at Nebraska and North Texas before taking his first full-time job as wide receivers coach at SMU in 1991. He was Nebraska’s quarterbacks coach from 1992-2002, the Cornhuskers’ assistant head coach in 2003 and receivers coach in 2004 before leaving for a one-year stint with the Green Bay Packers.

Buffalo hired him in 2006 to revive a moribund program that had gone 8-49 under previous coach Jim Hofher. The Bulls went 2-10 in Gill’s first season and improved to 5-7 in 2007. In 2008, the Gill’s Bulls broke through, finishing 8-6. They upset previously undefeated Ball State in the MAC championship game and advanced to the International Bowl, Buffalo’s only postseason since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Buffalo’s 2008 season made Gill a hot coaching commodity, and he interviewed for the head coaching position at Auburn, who instead hired Gene Chizik away from Iowa State. In 2010, Gill replaced Mark Mangino at Kansas.

Gill’s two years in Lawrence were rocky. His first game was a loss to FCS member North Dakota State, and in all, Gill went 5-19 at Kansas and was just 1-16 in Big 12 games, prompting Kansas’ administration to make a change. Kansas hired former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis to replace Gill.

Barber flew to Lawrence, Kansas, Tuesday to meet with Gill, and the pair returned to Lynchburg Wednesday afternoon. Gill spent the day with university officials and arrived at Williams Stadium at 4 p.m. to tour the facilities with university chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. Gill accepted the job around 10:30 p.m. after meeting with his family after a dinner with Falwell and Barber.

“Turner embraces all that Liberty is and stands for and it will be a privilege to work alongside him as we continue to move our football program forward,” Barber said.

The school received close to 100 applications for the open position. Carr Sports Associates, which recently helped North Carolina secure the services of former Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora, assisted Liberty on the search. Gill was the only candidate to visit campus.

Liberty also plans “a special announcement concerning the football program” at today’s news conference. Last October, Liberty hired Carr Sports Associates to begin an evaluation of the Flames’ overall athletic program. With the continued shifting of conference alignments nationwide, Liberty wanted to make itself as attractive as possible should the chance to move from the Big South present itself.